At the end of WWI,
the arms market was flooded with cheap surplus. The vanquished
surrendered their arms and many were destroyed. Even the victors
had surplus, which with their victories shrank their armies
and surplus was put into storage and also, sold on the open
market. Although flooded, there were still many avenues open
to sell these vast inventories. The geographics changed dramatically
throughout the world with new nations forming. With new nations,
new armies were formed and the need to arm them. With the
surplus arms market being flooded and new nations with no
revenues needing to arm, the arms were being sought cheaply
instead of being contracted new.

Surplus arms were
being sought in South America and China, along with the new
nations of Europe. There was a large variety of arms to choose
from; SMLE's, Berthiers, Mausers, Mannlichers and Mosins to
list a few. Mausers were always popular and were readily accepted
in China and South America. Berthiers and Lebel were going
to Africa. SMLE's to ex -British areas and also Africa. Mannlichers
to the ex -Austo Hungarian Empire and the Balkans. Mosins
to a more limited area of the Baltic nations, with Finland
being a country that adopted the Mosin Nagant and started
to actively purchase them on the open market. Poland used,
as a stop gap weapon, the Mosin Nagant Model 91, converted
later to 8mm Mauser and designated Wz 91/98/25.

It is interesting
to note the countries of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia seemed
to adopt the SMLE's and the .303 round. From of all these
arms, the Mauser was the top seller on the arms market and
it appears that the others were less desirable. China was
the anomaly, using about everything listed above. They actually
used large amounts of Mosins in the North of China due to
ex -Czarists troops flooding over the border to China escaping
from the Communist wrath.

Two Nations, which
found a niche in the arms market after WWI, were the newly
formed country of Czechoslovakia and Belgium. Both counties
had arms manufacturing centers and started to thrive as arms
manufacturers. Belgium was a small country, which was involved
in arms for centuries. It had ample small arms manufacturers
and small workshops in the Leige area. They had been known
forever as an arms maker. They produced licensed copies of
Mauser rifles and Browning machine guns. By the 1920's they
were selling new and surplus to South America and China, usually
at a cheaper price than their competitors. Arms were being
pushed and Fabrique Nationale was becoming a large, well respected
arms concern and with this, Belgium as a country, was becoming
one of the larger suppliers in the world market. Still, with
the popularity of FN there were other smaller makers and shops
trying gain the momentum in the arms market. Belgium also
had their share of Mosin Nagants and SMLE's. Some were traded,
while others were sold off. In the late twenties into the
early 30's some of the Mosins and SMLE's were taken and converted
to other calibres. The SMLE's proved difficult to convert
and actually to costly. The Mosin and some P14's were somewhat
more successful in converting to 8mm Mauser. One of the firms
that converted and marketed these was the firm of Soley-Grimard
et Cie, which operated out of Liege. This company was formed
by two enterprising arms dealers, Captain John Ball of the
Soley Armament Company of England, who had ties to BSA and
sold arms mostly ex- British stock and Edgard Grimard, a Belgian
arms dealer. This company sold anything surplus from small
arms to aircraft.

By the 1930's the
arms market was ripe for cheap arms. China was in still in
turmoil. Lithuania and Poland were clashing. The Gran Chaco
War was in full force in South America. Ethiopia was fighting
for her life against Italy and the Spanish Civil War was the
last conflict before WWII. As these conflicts flared, many
countries joined together to put limitations on selling arms
to warring factions and although on paper this was agreed,
many countries ignored it and sold outright. Other countries
used the smaller arms dealers to sell. It was in this period
that many companies flourished like Soley- Grimard.

One of the interesting
arms that had shown up was the Belgian 8mm conversion. Originally
believed to be set up for markets of South Americas and China,
these did not sell well. Both counties were set on Mausers
more than anything else. As the Spanish Civil War rolled around,
the Republicans, in desperate need for arms in the early part
of the conflict, were offered these along with some 8mm converted
P14's. The Republicans were purchasing arms with gold. These
weapons came to light in the 1960's when Interarms brought
in many surplus Mosins from Spain. Most of the Mosins were
standard 7.62 Mosin 91's and 91/30's that were supplied by
Stalin, later on. There were, however, some of these odd 8mm
conversions mixed in. Some of these were complete rifles a
few carbines and then some, which were barreled actions. In
1998 while up at Springfield Sporters, a few of the barrel
actions were found that had been purchased years ago from
Interarms. In talking to the owner, he stated that some of
these guns were turned into sporters by Interams but,ammunition
and safety became a key factor. The sporters were abandoned.
This was the reason some of these just had crudely shortened
barrels. A few carbines were, however, found with Mauser style
front sight and modified Mosin stocks and appeared to be original
carbine modifications but,cannot be proven for sure.

The Belgian modification is quite interesting.
In examining a few rifles, it was noted how simple the conversion
actually was. The chamber was set back and a notch cut into
the front of the receiver to compensate for the longer 8mm
round. The rear sight was regraduated and front sight appears
to be replaced. The bolt head was modified by taking the rim
of the bolt face off and modifying the extractor to compensate
for the non rimmed cartridge. The charger bridge was reworked
to take a standard 5 round Mauser stripper. The magazine housing
was simply spread out at the reinforcing ribs of the side
of the housing. The ejector and ejector spring was modified
heavily. The ejector was notched and the spring was modified
into two pieces with a pivot in the center. To compensate
for this modification, the sear had to be notched for it to
fit flush. All of these modification could be subcontracted
to any of the small Liege workshops. Workmanship seems to
be uniform and well done so most likely a standard was set
if piece mealed or one place did all the work.

Markings of these
conversions are all uniform with the side of the barrel marked
with 8x57mm Blindee P.V. just behind the rear sight. The chamber
area is marked crown R, star G and the flaming bomb with L
inside and is repeated on the side receiver flat with star
G and the Liege bomb. Just above these two marks is the serial
number, which appear in a definite serial number range. Although,
limited in numbers, no more than a dozen were found. The high
is 33024 and the low of 30169. All of these markings are on
the left side of the rifle. These are all stamped in the same
font and all other original markings from Russian production
are removed. Markings of the original date and arsenal of
manufacture are still on the underside of the tang.

As with any modification
, there are some differences from time to time. Most of these
rifles retain original one piece Russian stocks that were
mearly refinished. It is interesting to note two examples
reported were very early guns, which still retain the finger
rest after the trigger guard. Most rifles were modified from
fairly early rifles, with the latest production date being
1912. Again, with such limited numbers to work from there
can be exceptions.

Carbines are few
and far between and really there is no real way of proving
what is. It is clouded by the cut downs of Interarms and as
a rule these were just cut crudely and no other work was done
to the crown or muzzle. One example has a mounted cheap aluminum
sleeve sight that shows up on the Finn Cub sporters. Two examples
that appear to be original configured carbines, both sport
a Mauser style front sights with a very nicely crowned front
end with the front portion of the barrel tapered to fit the
sight. The stock is a simply cut Model 91 long stock with
refitted front nose cap and both barrel bands retained. The
stock is very similar to the Ulaani Carbines that were modified
by Finland for the Civil Guard in the 1920's. Barrel length
is 21 inches long on both examples and these retain all previous
discussed modifications. One example has the bolt bent slightly
and the other example has a straight bolt, both serial numbers
on the bolt fall into these serial number ranges although
not matching.

The 8mm Blindee
conversions are a unique example of the Mosin Nagant Rifle
to be converted to another calibre. It probably should fall
into the category of the Polish Wz 91/98/25, the German WWI
8x57 Conversion, the Austrian 8x50 Steyr conversion and probably
the Bannerman 30-06 conversion. Whether the 8mm Blindee guns
actually saw action, one could only speculate. For most examples
seem in pretty good condition and one does have to wonder
about the safety factor. Records are almost non-existent on
these for much of the arms imports to Spain were done in secret
or at the least brought in with much details left out. The
Mosin Nagant became popular in Spain among the Republicans,
most were used in original calibre and were sold by Russia
as the war progressed. Again, only small numbers came in from
Spain of the 8mm rifles and these have been ignored over decades
but,only in the last decade have Mosins been gaining popularity
with collectors and the search for other odd unique Mosins
were discovered. These have been seen once in a while over
the years and usually discounted as junk. To a collector of
Mosins it is a rare find.